Currently, there is no reusable container specifically designed to carry baby bottles (or nursers), juice cups or jars of pureed baby food in multiple cavities adapted specifically for receiving such baby bottles or food jars. All baby bottles that are sold in multiples are sold in non-reusable paper or plastic packages. This approach creates waste in the environment. Both hard and flexible plastics and paper products are used for the sole purpose of packaging several bottles to be sold together. After the bottles have been unpackaged, the packaging material is thrown away and bottles are used in the normal fashion.
In addition, it can be a cumbersome task for the caretaker of a baby to travel even a short distance with the child's daily paraphernalia, i.e., baby bottles, juice cups, jars of baby food, dried foods such as cereals, etc. The conventional way of carrying these items is to place them loosely into large diaper bags or into large, multi-use carrying bags, with any other items for the child's daily use. This makes for a frustrating task of fishing out each item from a bag with many other items in the bag.
Now more new mothers than ever before are returning to the work place soon after their baby's birth. As a result, such mothers are taking their babies to day care centers outside the home, to a babysitter's home or to the day care center in their workplace. They also travel with their babies at early ages, whether on business or pleasure trips.
The inconvenience of loose bottles and jars of baby food floating around the diaper bag and then fishing them out individually and handing them out to the day care person can be an awkward situation. Moreover, it may take several trips to place them all in a refrigerator unit for the baby's use during that day.
Because of the foregoing drawbacks, a need exists for a reusable container for the specific purpose of transporting multiple containers of baby food, i.e., baby bottles, juice cups and jars of baby food, from the home to any given destination where the baby may be for a long enough time such that the child will need to be fed from several bottles and/or from a number of jars of baby food.
In addition, with many loose bottles and food jars arriving at day care centers at approximately the same time each day as many children are dropped off by parents on their way to work, there is much confusion as to which bottle or jar belongs to which child. A container is, therefore, needed which not only keeps each bottle and jar of one child neatly contained in an individual compartment separate from the bottles and jars of other children. The container also has a surface in the front of the container for a child's name, address, and an emergency telephone number. Thus, the day care center has an easier task in getting the correct bottle and jar to each child.
The container not only has compartment inside the basket-like configuration but also has been designed to accommodate accessory componentry such as reusable plastic containers of a smaller size that can be clipped onto the outer side walls of the basket-like carrying container. These smaller containers are for the purpose of carrying dried foods such as cereals, raisins, etc. and/or juice boxes that can be clipped on the side of the basket-like container thus allowing dried foods, liquids and pureed foods all to be carried by one contained unit.
Disclosures in this general field of activity are found in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.:
3,349,958 1,990,675 PA1 4,538,727 1,520,444 PA1 4,067,474 3,341,053 PA1 3,910,472 3,842,976 PA1 3,219,233